Nonlinear (Adjective)
Meaning
Designating or involving an equation whose terms are not of the first degree.
Classification
All adjective clusters.
Examples
- The equation that models the population growth of the species is nonlinear, resulting in unpredictable fluctuations.
- Nonlinear equations are notoriously difficult to solve exactly, often requiring numerical approximation methods.
- The physicist's model used a nonlinear partial differential equation to describe the complex behavior of the system.
- The characteristics of the nonlinear oscillator make it useful for modeling a wide range of physical phenomena.
- In contrast to linear systems, nonlinear systems can exhibit chaos, a property that makes them highly sensitive to initial conditions.